Kyl-kyak
The kyl-kyak (Iradi: kyl-kyak) is a two-stringed bowed lute with strings of horsehair, played upright on the knee. Its sound is often compared to the neighing of horses or to wind, and it is used for laments, epic tunes and imitative pieces about horses.[1]
The body is carved from a single piece of apricot or juniper wood, with an open upper part and a lower part covered with skin. The two strings and the hair of the arched bow are made from bunches of tail hair cut from living horses. Ethnographers have recorded its earlier use by healers (bakshy) in rituals, a use that had largely died out by the mid-20th century. In some rural churches of the Syro-Iradi Catholic Church it accompanies the Syriac antiphons of the liturgy. Its sound has been sampled by Mor-Wave musicians, including the duo tüntolk, and it is paired with guitars in Iradi country-folk.[1][2]
References
- ^ Talas State University Press (2010). Instruments of the Iradi Tradition, pp. 53–70.
- ^ Talas Music Chronicle (2021). The Sound of the Night Wave: tüntolk and the Rise of Mor-Wave, pp. 34–58.